Posted on 09/18/2022 1:43:34 PM PDT by Ennis85
A teaser for the forthcoming live action remake of The Little Mermaid has been released. There’s a brief glimpse of the underwater kingdom — fish, coral and the wreckage of a ship — then a swish of red hair and a glimmering green tail as we hear a snippet of Halle Bailey’s glorious rendition of Part of Your World.
Social media has been flooded with videos of parents showing the trailer to their young black children, capturing their reactions when they realise this version of Ariel looks a lot more like them than in the original Disney movie. “That’s Ariel?” one little girl asks, wide-eyed. “Mommy, she’s brown like me,” another says, grinning.
Their delight was incredibly moving, one of those rare moments when the internet is united in pure joy. Of course, because we can’t have nice things, it was followed by a swift and brutal backlash. Bailey might have all the necessary prerequisites to play this character. Beautiful? Check. Incredible singing voice? Check. Red hair? Check. But the mere idea of a black mermaid was enough to add fuel to an increasingly unhinged culture war.
Between the cost of living crisis and rising energy costs, we are facing a true winter of discontent, and yet all some people can get energised about is the skin colour of a Disney princess. An “artificial intelligence scientist” decided to “fix” the trailer and, according to one Twitter user, “turned the woke actor into a ginger white girl. He says he can fix the whole movie when it comes out . . . It’s over for wokecels.” The Twitter user quickly clarified: “This is for purely educational purposes, please do not misinterpret this in a racist way.” Because what could be racist about literally whitewashing a black woman’s face?
The Little Mermaid isn’t the only remake attracting this kind of deranged criticism. The Rings of Power, Amazon’s much-anticipated prequel to the Lord of the Rings movies, features a more diverse cast, with women and people of colour playing key roles. Online trolls have been “review bombing” the series — Prime Video had to suspend reviews as a result — and some of the actors have been subjected to “relentless racism, threats, harassment and abuse”, according to a statement released by the stars of the show.
Tolkien would be rolling in his grave, the fanboys bemoaned, despite the fact the author rarely mentions skin colour in his texts. In the Oxford don’s own words: “I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones; and most of all, I detest the segregation or separation of language and literature. I do not care which of them you think white.” I would love to see a Venn diagram featuring people who cannot cope with elves of colour; people who are perfectly happy to believe that Jesus, a Jewish man from the Middle East, had light hair and blue eyes; and people who threaten to bomb movie theatres if a black man is ever given the chance to play James Bond. I imagine the intersection between the three would be tight. “But James Bond isn’t black,” some racists cry. “It would be like if a white actor played Barack Obama in a biopic. Have you ever thought about that?” I wonder how long it would take to explain to these poor unfortunate souls the difference between fictional characters and real people? Would it be like an episode of Father Ted? “These are small,” Ted tells Dougal, picking up the plastic toy cows on the table. “But the ones out there are far away.”
While, yes, there’s an argument to be made against Hollywood’s recycling of old intellectual properties rather than creating new ones, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t do their best to ensure that these retellings reflect the world in which we live. Representation matters. We all deserve to see ourselves reflected in the culture we consume. When Halle Bailey told her grandparents about the criticism she had faced when she took the role of Ariel, they told her: “You don’t understand what this is doing for us, for our community, for all the little black and brown girls who are going to see themselves in you.”
She told Variety magazine: “I want the little girls just like me who are watching to know that they’re special and that they should be a princess in every single way. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be.”
They could make it an animated cartoon and call it something like “Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs”. Oh wait, Warner Brothers already did that, back in 1943.
That’s what I’m talking about. There is no great conservative outcry about Ariel. The outcry is among liberals, saying that they perceive conservatives as being outraged.
None with any sense.
Warner Bros. did it.
“Merrie Melodies Coal Black And De Sebben Dwarfs”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR6Oe1xXaLc
I know, we can do The Wizard of Oz, but with all black people. Surely, nobody has ever thought of that.
What a concept! And after that, maybe a musical about the Founding Fathers.
So, my objection is purely based upon replacement, rather than creating expansion for purposes of inclusion.
It was inevitable that this sort of dismissive approach is intended to cover objections to Amazon's butchery of Tolkien's world as well, which is quite a different thing. Grafting 21st century social ideology over Tolkien's exquisite 20th-century treatment of the very same issues is not only first-level literary hubris but it isn't done well enough to look anything but clumsy and ignorant. I don't think the writers read the books.
A mermaid that won’t get her hair wet??
In my minds eye I pictured the mermaid as Polynesian.
Theory about Rings of Power: the show runners and writers are closet white supreemists who are intentionally creating a terrible show in order to sabotage the diverse cast.
Seriously, I can’t come up with a better explanation for this garbage. Oh, and isn’t Galadriel as a combination of Bree Larson’s Captain Marvel and Rey from Star Wars just such a deep and real character? Is there anything she can’t do perfectly immediately?
I actually wonder if HBO’s House of the Dragon is any good or if it just looks good in comparison to this idiocy from Amazon. I think it’s probably pretty good, but the competition is helping it.
I heard they are doing a remake of Princess Bride.
Weasly will be played by Lil Wayne, Princess Buttercup will be played by The Lady of Rage.
Kwami Kilpatric will takle the roll of Fezzik while Sug Night steps in as Kingpin Prince Humperdink
Story takes place on 7 mile in Detroit. 8 mile -1.
Fezzik
A mermaid who can’t swim?
I would accept a Black man playing James Bond if and only if it is Idris Elba. James Earl Jones is a bit old.
OFFS!
What’s next a remake of “Splash!” with Lizzo as the mermaid?
What they going to do with a Zebra...just asking for a fren.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.